Post by coolfilagal on Apr 27, 2004 19:10:24 GMT 10
Exotic look of the future
Daily Telegraph
By: Danielle Teutsch
In the never-ending quest for beauty in the 21st century, the more
multi-ethnic the look the better. Danielle Teutsch reports on Australia's
changing face.
WITH his quirky, indefinable features that combine almond-shaped eyes with
Afro hair, Malaysian-born Australian Idol winner Guy Sebastian typifies a
growing segment of Australia's young population who are multi-ethnic, and all
the cooler for it.
Sebastian, 22, belongs to the new breed of racially ambiguous urbanites his
father Ivan is of Sri Lankan and Portuguese descent, while his mother Nellie has
an English background and was raised in India.
Among Generation Y, exotic looks are in, racial hybrids are hip, and
inter-ethnic relationships are so common they barely raise eyebrows.
Many in this group are liable to talk about their own ancestry like
destinations on an international flight board.
And with a plethora of attractive, celebrity role models with an exotic
heritage, gone are the days when to have ``wog'' or Asian looks was something to
be ashamed of. It seems the tables have turned, and to have a look described
as ``white bread'' is not exactly a compliment.
It's a trend that the marketing, film and fashion industries are highly tuned
to.
On the books of Chic Model Management are part-Maori model Pania Rose ,
Aboriginal model Samantha Harris and a host of Eurasian, black and mixed-race
girls.
Chic managing director Ursula Hufnagl said: ``With all these inter-racial
marriages, we're getting these exotic looks. There's a huge range of looks
out there.
``It's not just your Bondi Beach babe anymore. The whole industry has
globalised.''
The creative director of advertising agency Mojo, Ted Royer, said there were
similar trends in advertising.
``The Eurasian look is an extremely hot, very worldly look. If you want
your brand to look in touch with the entire world, you get a sexy ethnic woman
in it,'' he said. Other celebrities with ``the look'' are actor Keanu Reeves
with his part Hawaiian, Chinese and English heritage; Aussie swimmer Geoff
Huegill who is part Thai; rugby league player Craig Wing who is part Filipino
; and model Megan Gale , who has Polynesian ancestry.
It is perhaps no surprise, then, that politicians are starting to rethink
Australia's multicultural policy, born of the Whitlam Government in the 1970s
and question whether it has become as dated as prawn cocktails and Skyhooks
records.
Mark Latham suggested last week it was somewhat redundant.
``Most Australians no longer see the need to prove our ethnic diversity,'' he
said. ``They are actually too busy practising it and enjoying its
benefits.''
Latham went on to say that second-generation migrants should not
``automatically treat nationality of origin as a marker of cultural identity''.
Lawyer and deputy chair of the Australian Republican Movement Jason Yat-Sen
Li agreed that race was not a big issue for the younger generation, which is
the first to have grown up in a truly multicultural society.
``If you go to most places in metropolitan centres there are people hanging
around with people from all different backgrounds,'' he said. ``Race does not
feature highly in the way that people identify with each other.''
Li said the traditional view of multiculturalism of separate communities
such as the Greeks, the Italians, the Vietnamese, was outdated and implied
Australian culture was ``static''.
``Culture is always evolving,'' he said.
``We are all part of this dynamic, evolving, morphing mass that we call
Australia.''
This weekend, Li, who has a Chinese background, will marry psychologist Lucy
Cooper, who has an Anglo heritage. They are having a traditional Anglican
Church ceremony, followed by a Chinese reception and no one is the least bit
fazed .
Li's view is backed up by demographic statistics, with 43 per cent of the
population now either born overseas, or having at least one parent born
overseas.
The most recent analysis of census data, in 1994, showed three-quarters of
second-generation Australians marry outside their ethnic group.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics will next month release a new paper
showing the rates of inter-ethnic marriages.
The paper's author, Siew-Ean Khoo , a senior fellow in the ANU's demography
and sociology program, said that this new data would, for the first time, look
at ancestry rather than place of birth giving a truer picture of our
increasingly blended gene pool.
Dr Khoo said Australians were in the process of physical transformation,
because of our widening diversity of origins. In the past 30 years, new
immigrants had arrived from Asia, the Pacific Islands, the Middle East and
Africa.
``It's quite obvious when you look around, that we are becoming more
diverse,'' she said.
The ANU's Centre for Immigration and Multicultural Studies director Dr James
Jupp agreed that multiculturalism was much less relevant now than in the 1970s,
when race-based prejudice was higher.
``All of that has gone out the window now, especially in the big cities, and
for younger people,'' he said.
``It's very hard to know what it means now.
``There is a sense that events like Annual Harmony Day are just a bunch of
people prancing about in national costumes.''
Dr Jupp warned, however, that Australia could not afford to throw out its
multicultural policy without replacing it with something better.
The big divisive issue of the noughties was shaping up to be religion, rather
than race, he said, citing the friction between Muslim communities and Western
governments as an example.
``We haven't come to grips with that, because it's too sensitive and too
difficult.''
Daily Telegraph
By: Danielle Teutsch
In the never-ending quest for beauty in the 21st century, the more
multi-ethnic the look the better. Danielle Teutsch reports on Australia's
changing face.
WITH his quirky, indefinable features that combine almond-shaped eyes with
Afro hair, Malaysian-born Australian Idol winner Guy Sebastian typifies a
growing segment of Australia's young population who are multi-ethnic, and all
the cooler for it.
Sebastian, 22, belongs to the new breed of racially ambiguous urbanites his
father Ivan is of Sri Lankan and Portuguese descent, while his mother Nellie has
an English background and was raised in India.
Among Generation Y, exotic looks are in, racial hybrids are hip, and
inter-ethnic relationships are so common they barely raise eyebrows.
Many in this group are liable to talk about their own ancestry like
destinations on an international flight board.
And with a plethora of attractive, celebrity role models with an exotic
heritage, gone are the days when to have ``wog'' or Asian looks was something to
be ashamed of. It seems the tables have turned, and to have a look described
as ``white bread'' is not exactly a compliment.
It's a trend that the marketing, film and fashion industries are highly tuned
to.
On the books of Chic Model Management are part-Maori model Pania Rose ,
Aboriginal model Samantha Harris and a host of Eurasian, black and mixed-race
girls.
Chic managing director Ursula Hufnagl said: ``With all these inter-racial
marriages, we're getting these exotic looks. There's a huge range of looks
out there.
``It's not just your Bondi Beach babe anymore. The whole industry has
globalised.''
The creative director of advertising agency Mojo, Ted Royer, said there were
similar trends in advertising.
``The Eurasian look is an extremely hot, very worldly look. If you want
your brand to look in touch with the entire world, you get a sexy ethnic woman
in it,'' he said. Other celebrities with ``the look'' are actor Keanu Reeves
with his part Hawaiian, Chinese and English heritage; Aussie swimmer Geoff
Huegill who is part Thai; rugby league player Craig Wing who is part Filipino
; and model Megan Gale , who has Polynesian ancestry.
It is perhaps no surprise, then, that politicians are starting to rethink
Australia's multicultural policy, born of the Whitlam Government in the 1970s
and question whether it has become as dated as prawn cocktails and Skyhooks
records.
Mark Latham suggested last week it was somewhat redundant.
``Most Australians no longer see the need to prove our ethnic diversity,'' he
said. ``They are actually too busy practising it and enjoying its
benefits.''
Latham went on to say that second-generation migrants should not
``automatically treat nationality of origin as a marker of cultural identity''.
Lawyer and deputy chair of the Australian Republican Movement Jason Yat-Sen
Li agreed that race was not a big issue for the younger generation, which is
the first to have grown up in a truly multicultural society.
``If you go to most places in metropolitan centres there are people hanging
around with people from all different backgrounds,'' he said. ``Race does not
feature highly in the way that people identify with each other.''
Li said the traditional view of multiculturalism of separate communities
such as the Greeks, the Italians, the Vietnamese, was outdated and implied
Australian culture was ``static''.
``Culture is always evolving,'' he said.
``We are all part of this dynamic, evolving, morphing mass that we call
Australia.''
This weekend, Li, who has a Chinese background, will marry psychologist Lucy
Cooper, who has an Anglo heritage. They are having a traditional Anglican
Church ceremony, followed by a Chinese reception and no one is the least bit
fazed .
Li's view is backed up by demographic statistics, with 43 per cent of the
population now either born overseas, or having at least one parent born
overseas.
The most recent analysis of census data, in 1994, showed three-quarters of
second-generation Australians marry outside their ethnic group.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics will next month release a new paper
showing the rates of inter-ethnic marriages.
The paper's author, Siew-Ean Khoo , a senior fellow in the ANU's demography
and sociology program, said that this new data would, for the first time, look
at ancestry rather than place of birth giving a truer picture of our
increasingly blended gene pool.
Dr Khoo said Australians were in the process of physical transformation,
because of our widening diversity of origins. In the past 30 years, new
immigrants had arrived from Asia, the Pacific Islands, the Middle East and
Africa.
``It's quite obvious when you look around, that we are becoming more
diverse,'' she said.
The ANU's Centre for Immigration and Multicultural Studies director Dr James
Jupp agreed that multiculturalism was much less relevant now than in the 1970s,
when race-based prejudice was higher.
``All of that has gone out the window now, especially in the big cities, and
for younger people,'' he said.
``It's very hard to know what it means now.
``There is a sense that events like Annual Harmony Day are just a bunch of
people prancing about in national costumes.''
Dr Jupp warned, however, that Australia could not afford to throw out its
multicultural policy without replacing it with something better.
The big divisive issue of the noughties was shaping up to be religion, rather
than race, he said, citing the friction between Muslim communities and Western
governments as an example.
``We haven't come to grips with that, because it's too sensitive and too
difficult.''
